Johann Rupprecht and Elizabeth Eisenhut

Johann Rupprecht was born in Troschenreuth, Bavaria on March 9, 1828. Elizabeth Eisenhut was born in the same place on September 4, 1829. This is all the information I have about their lives in Germany. On October 16, 1847 Johann and Elizabeth left Germany for a new life. They departed from Bremen, Germany on the ship Henriette and arrived in the United States at the port of New Orleans in January, 1848. Johann was 20 years old and Elizabeth was just 19 when they began this journey to a foreign country. Johann’s brother George, age 23, also made the trip, as well other companions.

Elizabeth Eisenhut was unmarried and pregnant with her first child when she boarded the ship to America with Johann Rupprecht. Their daughter, Kunigunda Rupprecht, was born at sea, one of two children born on the ship during the journey. The last page of the manifest lists the two children born including a daughter born to John Rupprecht on Dec. 14, 1847.

According to St. Ferdinand Church records, Kunigunda was baptized on January 29, 1848 in Ferdinand, Indiana. Her sponsors were listed as John Brendel and Kunigunda. It was normal practice for a child to be given the name of their sponsor when they were baptized. I believe Kunigunda is the sister or another close relative of Johann and George Rupprecht. She and John Brendel arrived together in America on the same boat with a small child, or so it appears from the manifest.

On May 8, 1848, three weddings took place at St. Ferdinand Church. Johann Rupprecht and Elizabeth Eisenhut, Johann Brendel and Kunigunda Rupprecht, Wolf Lauber and Catharine Weis. On May 10 another couple, Franciscus Paulus and Anna Buninder were married and Elisabeth Eisenhut is listed as sponsor. (Although she was married to Johann Rupprecht two days prior). These eight people were obviously all friends as some of them were witnesses to each other’s wedding. I am not certain when the Paulus or Lauber couples immigrated.

I found it interesting that these couples were not married in Germany before they traveled to this country. Apparently in Bavaria in the mid 1800’s only the wealthy were permitted to marry in some areas. In the book “Thru the Years, Fulda” it is speculated that Johann and his brother George were of noble birth because they were well educated. This perhaps could be disputed then if they were not wealthy enough to be married in their homeland.

Johann and Elizabeth Rupprecht were one of the first families to settle in Fulda, Indiana. John was able to buy 40 acres of government land at $1.25 per acre.  At the time of this sale, Millard Fillmore was president of the U.S.  The Rupprechts raised a large family of 9 children who were born over a span of 22 years. Their son George never married and died at the age of 24. Two of their other children, Andrew and Elizabeth also never married and both lived on the family farm their entire lives. Andrew lived to be 80 years old and Elizabeth lived to be 74.  

Johann and his brother George renounced their allegiance to Ludwig, Prince of Byrne in Spencer County, Indiana on August 6, 1852. For some reason, which will forever remain a mystery, their official documents state that they immigrated on January 12, 1852. But ship manifests, church marriage and baptismal records prove that they were here and well established in 1848.

Johann Rupprecht was drafted to serve in the 44^th Indiana Infantry during the Civil War.  He was enrolled in Evansville on November 12, 1864 and was mustered out at Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 25, 1865. It is unlikely Johann saw any combat. The last battle recorded for the 44^th Indiana infantry was on July 13, 1864 in Chattanooga. Johann filed for a pension as an invalid in July of 1890. Elizabeth filed for a widows pension on Dec. 16, 1895.

After 47 years of marriage to Elizabeth, Johann died on December 4, 1895 at the age of 67. Elizabeth lived on the farm with Andrew and Elizabeth for another 10 years until her death on Feb 26, 1906 at the age of 76. Johann and Elizabeth are buried in the St. Boniface church cemetery in Fulda, along with all of their children and many other descendants.

The following is from the last will and testament of John (Johann) Rupprecht. 

"I John Rupprecht of Spencer County, State of Indiana, being sound in mind and memory, and knowing the uncertainty of life do herby make and publish this my last will and testament as follows to wit:

I will and bequeath to my son Andrew Rupprecht all my real estate which I own and am possessed of at the time of my death, lying in sections 4 and 9 in township 5, south of Range 4 West in the state of Indiana under the following conditions to wit: That he pays to my beloved wife, Elizabeth Rupprecht, the sum of two hundred dollars and give her the third of all crops raised on the farm, and two cows, and the use of a dwelling room with all its furniture, the use of a team and buggy at her wishes and free fire wood ready to put in the stove; also the third of the garden and of all fruit and grapes and the third of all eggs laying by the hens.

Further, he my son Andrew shall pay to my daughter Elizabeth the sum of four hundred dollars, to my son Peter Rupprecht, the sum of one hundred dollars, to my two sons John and Joseph, to each twenty five dollars and to my three daughters, Mary, Kunigunde and Margarethe to each ten dollars.

I appoint my son Andrew Rupprecht to be the sole executor of this my last will and testament and give him full power to settle my estate without the interference of the courts and without giving bond.  In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 8^th day of November, 1894.                    John Rupprecht

The Children of Johann Rupprecht and Elizabeth Eisenhut are as follows

Kunigunda                Born at sea December 13, 1847
John G                      Born February 14, 1850
Mary Anna               Born December 19, 1851              
Joseph John              Born January 18, 1854                   
George                      Born November 4, 1856
Andrew                     Born November 30, 1860              
Margaretha               Born February 11, 1862                 
Elizabeth J.               Born April 19, 1865                         
Peter John                Born January 10, 1869                   

There is very little information to be found about Johann’s brother George. In the book “Thru the years, Fulda” it states that a schoolhouse was built in 1852 and “Professor” George Rupprecht was the first teacher there. George was well educated in both German and English and he had a great resemblance to the white-bearded American poet, Henry W. Longfellow. Mr. Rupprecht taught in Fulda only a few years because by 1860 two other teachers were employed in Fulda and in 1860 he himself was teaching near Bretzville. Rupprecht is reported to have been very fond of small, preschool age children and liked to have them in his school. He did not expect them to study much, and he allowed them to rest on the bed that he had in the school. He taught what was called a subscription school: the parents could pay him a certain amount for each child, either in money or produce, or else give him room and board for a certain length of time. When he did not live with a family, Rupprecht cooked and slept in the schoolhouse. There are a couple of interesting details known about the first teacher of Fulda. Under no condition would he teach in a public school, although he was qualified as well as or better than the average teacher of his time. According to an old newspaper account, he bought stock in the Louisville Air Line Railroad. The last information known about him is that he did similar school work in Illinois, died and was buried there.

John Brendel and Kunigunda Rupprecht could have lived in another state after they were married.  It will remain a mystery how exactly Kunigunda was related to our family. She was clearly closely connected to Johann due to his first born daughter being sponsored by and named after her. The ship manifest from their arrival was very difficult to figure out. Like I have found on so many other documents, I believe there are some major clerical errors on this manifest. Listed directly above Johann, Elizabeth and George are John Brendel, Kunigunda Rupprecht and a Rupprecht child. It shows Kundigunda as a male and the child as a female. I now believe that this was switched around. I believe the child was a boy and the first born child of Kunigunda about 1 ½ yrs. old named George. I have never found George and Kunigunda on the 1850 census in Spencer County. John and their children are listed on the 1860 Census. The youngest child is 3 years old so Kunigunda must have died between 1857 and 1860.